Dear Friends,                                                    … pesto is the quiche of the ’80s …

Speaking of When Harry met Sally – or, at least, of Rob Reiner – it has one of the greatest “moment they find their soulmates” scenes in all movies. In case you’ve forgotten, during one of their “just friends” periods, Harry and Sally decide to set each other up with their respective best friends, Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher), both absolutely wonderful. Needless to say, things don’t quite go as planned. They all go out to dinner together. Marie quotes something she read in a magazine:

            Marie: (quoting) “Restaurants are to people in the ’80s what theatres were to people in the ’60s” – (apologetically) I read that in a magazine.

            Jess: (quietly pleased) I wrote that.

            Marie: (with happy amazement) Get out of town!

            Jess: No, I did, I wrote that.

            Marie: (astonished) I’ve never quoted anything from a magazine in my life! That’s amazing! That’s amazing … and you wrote it?

            Jess: (a little self-consciously) I also wrote “Pesto is the Quiche of the ’80s”.

            Marie: (delighted) Get over yourself! You wrote that!

            Jess: (really happy) I did!

etc., etc., etc.

The deepening expressions of gloom on Harry and Sally’s faces are themselves worth the price of admission. Also, interesting autobiographical fact, this was the first time I ever heard the valuable expressions of positive excitement “get out of town!” and “get over yourself!”.

Why bring this up now? Well, any excuse for remembering “pesto is the quiche of the ’80s” is a good excuse. But it also helped me to formulate an idea that has been floating around in my mind for a while. I’m not sure how we denote decades in this new century, first of a new millennium, but how about this: curated is the artisanal of the ’20s. Ok, this probably doesn’t seem as brilliant to you as it does to me. I’ve always rather liked “artisanal” mostly for how silly it is in most cases; and I have some sense of what they’re getting at. I have no idea at all what “curated” in its new universal manifestation means. But, hey, it’s a word of the moment, I’m not going to knock it.

You can’t talk about When Harry met Sally without at least writing out the immortal line spoken in Katz’s Delicatessen (if you’re in Manhattan, go there) by Estelle Reiner, Rob’s mum: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Love and solidarity,

            Bobby